To Boldly Go Where No Unmanned Aircraft Has Gone Before: A Half-Century of DARPA's Contributions to Unmanned Aircraft

Abstract

Through 45 years of development efforts, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has helped foment the revolution in unmanned aircraft. Over this time, DARPA has engendered research in autonomy, structures, propulsion, guidance, payload sensors, communications and operations, as well as weaponization and novel configurations possible only by obviating the need for an onboard pilot. Although the military services have not always been successful at fielding unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), DARPA programs eventually led to the introduction of the Pioneer, Gnat, Predator, Global Hawk and T-Hawk into operational military service. Numerous other programs explored other approaches, with many technologies eventually implemented on manned and unmanned aircraft. The explosion in fielded UAVs over the past 15 years is due in large part to DARPA’s legacy in unmanned systems technology investments.